Those of you feeling dulled by the cold, ashen greys and dead stares floating through New York's galleries, we officially have your antidote--and, naturally, it comes in the form of a homemade space station. But you'll need to act fast as your remedy's days are numbered...

Sunday, June 17th will be your final day to immerse yourself in installation artist Tom Sachs' gonzo and intimidatingly inventive Space Program: Mars. Happening at Park Avenue Armory and co-presented by Creative Time, Sachs' has transformed 55,000 square feet into a full-blown, extraterrestial environment.

Yes, a bizarre undertaking, but to hear it from Park Ave. Armory:

Space Station: Mars is deemed"a demonstration of all that is necessary for survival, scientific exploration, and colonization in extraterrestrial environs: from food delivery systems and entertainment to agriculture and human waste disposal," with "a conceptual underpinning that addresses serious and profound issues—namely the commodification of abstract concepts such as originality, shock, newness, and mystery—expressing them in the personal and physical terms of production and process."

So we implore you: Muster up the $12 for a ticket and find an hour or two within the week to explore Sachs' otherworld, it's an installation event that's simply all too rare.

Now: We understand that some of you may look at the above image and recoil, gasping in horror over the sheer "how could he?!"-ness of it all.

Let's just take a second and breathe. Yes, we benefit from our technologies. Yes, we have become inextricably linked. No, they do not have personalities, or a heart, or brain--and as much as we may enjoy anthropomorphizing our iPads, they do. not. care. about. us.

So who cares? Let's just deep fry them, pour some powdered sugar on and ingest our gidgets and gadgets once and for all? That's what Brooklyn-based artist Henry Hargreaves might be suggesting with his aptly-named series, Deepfried Gadgets.

Or maybe, Hargreaves just wanted to provoke a reaction, showing us that our myriad technologies can't actually serve our very basic survival needs.

Or maybe, Hargreaves just wanted to put some things in a deep fryer and see if they made it out in one piece.

Either way, as deceptively (or as literally) low-brow as this work might appear, we're on board.

Take a glimpse at a few more--to some, horrific--shots and now tell us that smart phone sitting to the left of your laptop, the one to the right of your Kindle, doesn't look potentially tasty.

The key question isn't 'What fosters creativity?' But it is why in God's name isn't everyone creative? Where was the human potential lost? How was it crippled? I think therefore a good question might be not why do people create, but why do people not create?

Whether you're seeking inspiration for work in one of our filmmaking classes or just looking for a great way to kick off your weekend, Friday's New York Japan CineFest program at the Asia Society is an excellence opportunity to catch seven acclaimed short films, and maybe even meet their directors, who will also be in attendance.

One of the program's most decorated films is Justin Ambrosino's The 8th Samurai, which imagines the fate of an additional actor cut from Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. The "wildly humorous" tribute even toured with Kurosawa's films for his 100th anniversary back in 2010. Equally acclaimed is Ken Ochiai's Frog in the Well, which follows a man's "meditative and transformative" trek across Japan to scatter his mother's ashes.

Kosuke Furukawa's Uguisu portrays a waitress who "comes across two mysterious customers" while working at a Brooklyn diner, which you might recognize as Williamsburg's Cafe de la Esquina (previously home to the Wythe Diner). We're also quite intrigued by Chisa Hidaka's Together: Dancing with Spinner Dolphins, in which "a human dancer and wild Spinner dolphins forge a tender relationship through the language of dance."

Rounding out the lineup are Yasu Suzuki's Radius Squared Times Heart, which snagged Best Comedic Short Film at the Manhattan Film Festival, Haruhito Naka's Into The New World, in which a woman's search for her missing boyfriend leads her into an "unexpectedly hallucinatory world," and Yoriko Murakami's Corazon en Fuego / Heart on Fire, a stop-motion animation about a lonely woman who is "visited by an unexpected guest who will change her life forever."

Sounds like there's something for everyone! Watch the New York Japan CineFest trailer below and grab your tickets for Friday's program here.

Either way, the Design Awards roll on--and Core 77's 2nd annual award show is shaping up to be a wildly ambitious,transcontinental event. Kicking off July 8th and running the course of nine days, winners will be announced via live broadcast from panels of jurors seated across the globe. With seventeen design categories, running the gamut from Transportation to Social Impact to Food Design, inspiration seems extractable for just about anyone watching.

In no way will we try and replicate the entire schedule, so head here now and make sure you've got that thing bookmarked. However, we will tell you that New York has not one but two jury panels this year--Manhattan repping on July 9th and Brooklyn on July 14th.

Meanwhile, we've assembled a handful of some of our favorite winners from 2011 (check the captions for what it is you're looking at.) If these are any indicator of what may transpire at this year's awards, our world is simply poised to be a better place.

You have to know what you want. And if it seems to take you off the track, don't hold back, because perhaps that is instinctively where you want to be. And if you hold back and try to be always where you have been before, you will go dry.

The 11th Crest Hardware Art Show is less than a month away, but you still have time to submit your hardware-themed artwork for this time-honored showcase. The deadline for submissions has been extended through this Friday, June 8, and the show will kick off on June 30 with the always fun Crest Fest.